Leon was back home in less than three hours after leaving. His mood was terrible. He didn't bother knocking the door as he arrived, swiftly yanking it open as he knew Ezra wasn't smart enough to lock it after he left.
Leon took two steps into the house and shut the door behind him. Nothing was out of place. All the furniture and appliances were still intact. Ezra was still lying on the couch and playing with his phone, exactly how Leon had left him.
However, just the sight of Ezra turned Leon mad.
'It's all his fault,' Leon thought, spiteful, tightening his fists.
That was the moment Ezra noticed that Leon was back. He put away his phone and scrunched his face in confusion.
"You're back already?" Ezra scratched his head.
Leon didn't respond. He was rooted to the spot he was standing, boiling with anger.
"Leon, what's wrong? Why do you look like you want to kill someone?" Ezra asked with a hint of amusement in his tone.
'You! I want to kill you!' Leon responded internally.
If Ezra wasn't alive, maybe his life would have turned out differently, and he wouldn't have been subjected to all of this nonsense. The idea of murder always seemed to cross Leon's head when he was with Ezra.
'Repress it. He's your brother. You can't kill him. It's fine,' Leon comforted himself in his head and carried out his special breathing technique.
Everything would be fine.
After a moment, he calmed down. Ezra was still questioning him about why he was back so early, but Leon refused to respond, putting his mental health first. He went straight to his room and locked the door to prevent Ezra from coming in.
He just hated seeing Ezra's face sometimes. Just a glance was able to remind him of all the bad things Ezra had done to him. He couldn't help but hate his brother who caused him to get entangled with Bryce Sterling.
Leon kicked off his shoes and took off his clothes and glasses before he collapsed on the bed in his underwear.
He covered himself with a comforter and hoped to get some shut-eye to rest his head. But the first thing that appeared in his mind when he closed his eyes was an image of Bryce grabbing his chin with a wicked smile on his face.
"Take off your clothes and get on the bed." Leon could vividly hear Bryce saying those words to him.
He saw himself doing as instructed without any shred of shame in his body. And Bryce didn't take his eyes off him for a single second, savoring every moment of his undressing.
When Leon finally made it to the bed, Bryce came closer and said to him, "How does it feel to be treated like the shameless wh*re that you are?"
Leon's eyes instantly flew open and he jerked up from the bed.
"Fuck…" he cussed, pushing his hair from his forehead as sweat trickled down his back.
Why did he have to remember that nonsense now? Why couldn't he just forget?
Leon covered his face with his hands. His history with Bryce was a dark and twisted one. And he prayed that it would never repeat itself in the present or the future.
In fact, he'd believed that it would never repeat itself. That was until today. Bryce was really able to show him that if he wanted him on his knees, Leon wouldn't be able to resist.
"Fuck this omega body of mine," Leon said with anger.
Maybe if he wasn't an omega, Bryce wouldn't have—
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
Leon's thoughts were interrupted by notification sounds coming from his phone. He sighed and fished for his phone that was lying somewhere on the bed.
He saw that the screen displayed a stream of messages from an unknown number. Leon opened them all to check.
[Hi. It's James AM.]
[Remember we met yesterday. I asked you to help me with piano lessons.]
[And you said no.]
[Have you changed your mind now?]
[If you have, then you can call me with this line.]
[I can't wait to be your student!]
Leon flung his phone away, ignoring the remaining messages. This James was really insane. He must have known that Bryce had cornered him and thought that Leon would change his mind after being hassled.
The nerve of the guy.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
More messages from James came into his phone, but Leon didn't give them any face. How was he supposed to respond?
'Yes, I've changed my mind. See you tomorrow.'
Was that what they expected from him? If yes, then they truly lived in a world of their own making. Leon stretched his arms, dismissing the idea of getting shut-eye.
Now, he couldn't rest, but he couldn't get himself to overthink. So, he chose to take his time away. What better way was there to relieve himself than to practice his music?
Leon climbed down the bed and walked to the corner of his room to retrieve his keyboard. He set it on a stand and dragged a stool over.
He began to play.
It was a really weird scene. A man in his underwear exerting all the energy he had in him, pouring out his frustration through his fingers and producing magic with an instrument.
Leon lost track of time and simply played to his heart's content. With the amount of time he had to spare in a day after working, he almost never practiced his own talent.
Teaching others and forgetting himself. It was surprising that he hadn't gone rusty and still had perfect control of his hands over the keys.
Leon played and played until he started to make mistakes with his fingers slipping and hitting wrong notes. Leon instantly stopped playing when he noticed this.
God forbid he played nonsense as the learned pianist he was believed to be.
He wiped the sweat off his forehead and stood up from the stool. He went to pick up his phone so he could check the time.
However, a single notification bar on the screen caught his attention.
[Your time is up.]